Carlos Castaneda

According to his birth record, Carlos Castañeda was born Carlos César Salvador Arana on December 25, 1925, in Cajamarca, Peru, son of César Arana and Susana Castañeda. Castaneda repeatedly invented details about his background, claiming to be from a noble family, that his uncle was Brazilian diplomat Oswaldo Aranha, and he had gone to a prestigious Argentine boarding school. In reality Castaneda came from a poor background, the son of a watch repairman and goldsmith (rather than an academic as Castaneda claimed). Castaneda spent time as a child working on an extended family member's chicken farm in Brazil working on tasks such as cleaning coops. While he claimed to have spent time learning sculpture in an art school in Milan, Italy, he never did so, though he did spend time at an art school in Peru's capital, Lima. Immigration records confirm the birth record's date and place of birth. Castaneda moved to the United States in 1951 and became a naturalized citizen on June 21, 1957. Castaneda studied anthropology and was awarded his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles. ==Career==

Castaneda's first three books—The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, A Separate Reality, and Journey to Ixtlan—were written while he was an anthropology student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He wrote that these books were ethnographic accounts describing his apprenticeship with a traditional "Man of Knowledge" identified as Don Juan Matus, an Indigenous Yaqui from northern Mexico. The veracity of these books was doubted from their original publication, and they are considered to be fictional by many scholars. ==Personal life==

Castaneda married Margaret Runyan in Mexico in 1960, according to Runyan's memoirs. He is listed as the father on the birth certificate of Runyan's son, C.J. Castaneda (who later took the name Adrian Vashon), even though the biological father was a different man. In an interview, Runyan said she and Castaneda were married from 1960 to 1973; however, Castaneda obscured whether the marriage occurred, and his death certificate stated he had never been married. Shortly prior to moving to America, Castaneda reportedly fathered a daughter with a partner in Lima (with some sources alleging he moved to the United States to evade responsibility for caring for her) though he had no later children and may have had a vasectomy. == Death ==

Castaneda died on April 27, 1998 in Los Angeles at the age of 72, due to complications from hepatocellular cancer. There was no public service; he was cremated, and the ashes were sent to Mexico. His death was unknown to the outside world until nearly two months later, on June 19, 1998, when an obituary, "A Hushed Death for Mystic Author Carlos Castaneda" by staff writer J. R. Moehringer appeared in the Los Angeles Times. Castaneda had reportedly spent the last several months of his life watching VHS tapes of war movies, the last being Stalag 17, which he apparently had a very negative opinion of. Prior to his death, his documents and records had been systematically burned by his followers. In his will Castaneda's assets were divided among his closest devotees. Adrian Vashon, Castaneda's former stepson, the son of Castaneda's ex-wife Margaret Runyan, filed a legal claim, claiming that Castaneda's devotees had changed his will shortly prior to his death to exclude him from the estate. A judge later ruled against Vashon. == Castaneda's students ==

After Castaneda stepped away from public view in the early 1970s, he used the significant money he made from the Don Juan books to buy a large multi-dwelling property in Los Angeles, which he shared with some of his followers. However, Castaneda often talked about suicide, and associates believe the women killed themselves in the wake of Castaneda's death. As of 2024, none of the other four missing "witches" have been heard from since their disappearance and their fate remains undetermined. Some of Castaneda's followers have speculated that they may have ritually committed suicide as an attempt to follow Castaneda into the afterlife, as Castaneda preached that by using shamanic practices one could cheat death by transferring their energy into an "alternate dimension". == Themes ==

While Castaneda's early works, particularly The Teachings of Don Juan, emphasised the use of psychoactive drugs such as peyote, Datura, and magic mushrooms to achieve spiritual knowledge via altering perception of reality (contemporaneous with the widespread countercultural use of psychedelics in the United States during the late 1960s when the book was published), his later books tended to avoid mentioning this, focusing on other means to achieve altered states of consciousness. Castaneda's early works tend to emphasise the idea that there is no one "true" interpretation of reality and that its nature is up for interpretation, with the character of Don Juan ridiculing Castaneda for asking for definitive answers about the nature of reality. However, in his later works towards the end of his life, Castaneda attempts to explain the true nature of reality, describing reality as being composed of an "extensive web of energy that emanates from the central source" known as "the Eagle", focusing on the practice of lucid dreaming as well as "stalking" (changing one's personality, environment, and/or habitual behaviour, etc). == Reception ==

The veracity of these books and the existence of Don Juan, were doubted from their original publication, Anthropologist E. H. Spicer offered a somewhat mixed review of the book, highlighting Castaneda's expressive prose and his vivid depiction of his relationship with don Juan. However, Spicer noted that the events described in the book were not consistent with other ethnographic accounts of Yaqui cultural practices, concluding it was unlikely that don Juan had ever participated in Yaqui group life. Spicer also wrote, "[It is] wholly gratuitous to emphasize, as the subtitle does, any connection between the subject matter of the book and the cultural traditions of the Yaquis." In a series of articles, R. Gordon Wasson, the ethnobotanist who made psychoactive mushrooms famous, similarly praised Castaneda's work, while expressing doubts about its accuracy. An early unpublished review by anthropologist Weston La Barre was more critical and questioned the book's accuracy. The review, initially commissioned by The New York Times Book Review, was rejected and replaced by a more positive review from anthropologist Paul Riesman. Donald Wiebe cites Castaneda to explain the insider/outsider problem as it relates to mystical experiences, while acknowledging the fictional nature of Castaneda's work. Existence of Don Juan Matus Although there was initial debate "whether Castaneda served as an apprentice to the alleged Yaqui sorcerer don Juan Matus or if he invented the whole odyssey", Castaneda's writings of the teachings of Don Juan wildly contradict what is known of actual Yaqui culture. based on several arguments, including that Castaneda did not report on the Yaqui name of a single plant he learned about, and that he and don Juan "go quite unmolested by pests that normally torment desert hikers." Walter Shelburne contends that "the Don Juan chronicle cannot be a true account." According to Jeroen Boekhoven, Castaneda spent some time with Ramón Medina Silva, a Huichol ''mara'akame'' (shaman) and artist who may have inspired the don Juan character. Silva was murdered during a brawl in 1971. ==Related writers and influence==

• Michael Korda, editor-in-chief at Simon & Schuster, was Castaneda's editor for his first eight books and discusses their work together in an essay in Another Life: A Memoir of Other People. • George Lucas has stated that Yoda and Luke Skywalker were inspired in part by Don Juan and Castaneda. • Octavio Paz, Nobel laureate, poet, and diplomat, wrote the prologue to the Spanish-language edition of The Teachings of Don Juan. • Amy Wallace wrote ''Sorcerer's Apprentice: My Life with Carlos Castaneda'', an account of her personal experiences with Castaneda and his followers. == Publications ==

Books • The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, 1968. . (Summer 1960 to October 1965.) • A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan, 1971. . (April 1968 to October 1970.) • Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan, 1972. . (Summer 1960 to May 1971.) • Tales of Power, 1974. . (Autumn 1971 to the 'Final Meeting' with don Juan Matus in 1973.) • The Second Ring of Power, 1977. . (Meeting his fellow apprentices after the 'Final Meeting'.) • ''The Eagle's Gift'', 1981. . (Continuing with his fellow apprentices, and then alone with La Gorda.) • The Fire From Within, 1984. . (Don Juan's 'Second Attention' teachings through to the 'Final Meeting' in 1973.) • The Power of Silence: Further Lessons of Don Juan, 1987. . (The 'Abstract Cores' of Don Juan's lessons.) • The Art of Dreaming, 1993. . (Review of don Juan's lessons in dreaming.) • Magical Passes: The Practical Wisdom of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico, 1998. . (Body movements for breaking the barriers of normal perception.) • The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe, 1998. . (Selected quotations from the first eight books.) • The Active Side of Infinity, 1999. . (Memorable events of his life.) Interviews • Burton, Sandra (March 5, 1973). "Magic and Reality". Time. • Corvalan, Graciela, Der Weg der Tolteken - Ein Gespräch mit Carlos Castañeda, Fischer, 1987, c. 100p., ==See also==